THE trend of dieting and keeping fit has spread from humans to fish, after a clever farmer in Gangkou Township, Zhongshan City found his fish could sell at a better price after losing some weight.

Huang Jinhua, a 36-year-old fish farmer, has been in the trade for 15 years. He first noticed that fat fish did not sell well in the market three years ago, as more people became picky about the taste of fish and favored food with lower cholesterol levels..

After experimenting, Huang developed his own methods to help fish lose weight. While other farmers were trying to raise fat fish as quickly as possible, Huang bought adult fat fish from others and put them on a 40-day diet.

He put some salt in his fishpond as a disinfectant and stirred up the water from time to time to force his fish to exercise.

Huang would not give any food to the fish during the diet but had to pay extreme attention to their health. "Water quality is essential to the health of the fish," Huang said, "and you have to trace the minute changes in the weight of the fish." The fish could die if they were starved too long.

With a daily 13,000kg of fish exported to Hong Kong, Huang could make quite a sum at a price of 9.6 yuan (US$1.16) per kg. Huang paid 7.4 yuan for every kilogram of fish he bought from other farmers.

 
Editor: Wings